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Monday, April 15, 2019

According to witnesses, on Monday, protesters in Sudan prevented a military breakup of a sit-in outside the country’s defense ministry and presidential residence in the capital, Khartoum. The protesters had been demanding a quick transition to civilian government from the military council that has been running the country since the arrest of President Omar al-Bashir last week. They defied soldiers and tractors by forming rings, chanting and playing drums.

Troops gathered around the protest area with tractors to remove barriers, but the protesters, numbering about 5000 according to Reuters, joined hands and formed rings. Many chanted about freedom and revolution and others called out to the army to protect them instead.

These demonstrators have been calling for the quick establishment of a civilian government in the wake of the arrest of President Bashir by the army last Thursday. Army officials had since announced they would create a transitional military council to govern the nation with elections two years from now.

“We are here to remove the entire system, a system that does not give service equally to the people,” protestor Mohammed Jakur told Agence France-Presse. “A system that leave[s] people under poverty. A system that does not allow Sudan, as a rich country with human and natural resources, to act as any other country in the world.”

This specific demonstration outside the defense ministry began April 6, but it is part of a larger group of protests that have been going on for three months due to the country’s economic situation. Much of this movement has been led by the Sudanese Professionals Association, which has called for “full dissolution” of the deep state and rejection of the military council.

The military council has already made some concessions to the protesting public, including replacing the heads of the army, intelligence service and other agencies, arresting several high figures in the Bashir government—though they did not disclose whom, establishing committees to fight corruption, removal of all censorship and media restrictions, and the release of police and other government employees who had been arrested for supporting protestors.

The International Criminal Court indicted Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity, which Bashir denies. Deputy head of the transitional military council Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo told the British ambassador that Bashir is in a “safe place” under “heavy guard” but did not say where. The military council does not plan to extradite him.

Reports of reactions from other countries have been mixed. Representatives from the United States, Britain and the African Union expressed either support for the protesters’ goals. The state-run Sudanese news agency, SUNA, claims that leaders from other countries called to express support for military council head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan:

Specifically, British Ambassador Irfan Siddiq asked that there be no attempt to break up protests by force and expressed his country’s support for a quick transition to civilian rule.

However, the fact that U.S. and British representatives were willing to meet with military leaders like General Dagalo in the first place displeased some protesters. Dagalo leads Sudan’s Rapid Support Force, which is feared by the people and, under its earlier incarnation, “Janjaweed,” allegedly committed crimes in Darfur.

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council, based in Addis Ababa, informed the transitional military council that Sudan will be expelled from the AU if it does not hand control of the country to a “transitional civilian-led political authority” within 15 days.

Sudan’s state news agency claims that the head of Sudan’s transitional military council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, received phone calls expressing support from the king of Saudi Arabia and the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, all emphasizing the need for stability.

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